Charlie-

Keep your head down.

Stay smooth through the ball.

Listen to the grass.

Take each hole as it comes, one stroke at a time.

Any pressure you apply, you apply to yourself.

You can’t phone this in; you can’t fake it.

Trust your swing.

It’s a long course, Kiddo, and we’re past the turn.

I know you’re tired.

I know your hands hurt.

I know it seems a long way to the clubhouse, but it’s easier to play in from here than to walk back, bags over our slumped shoulders.

I know you’re frustrated.

I know you are shooting 27-over with 9 holes in.

It doesn’t matter.

This is a test.

Keep reading the greens: they will teach you something. Something quiet and patient. Something that will be there later. And you will need it.

No. We can’t quit for the day.

I love you.

-Dad

Dry run complete. Same room, same time, same test structure.

Coming from the world of checklists and precise procedures, it’s tough to adjust to considering 65% on a multiple choice battery “good” – but that appears to be the nature of this beast for me.

This is how Claudia saw me in 2008:

This is how she sees me at the end of my first year in law school:

I asked her to give me four months and feed me nothing but lemon broth, baby carrots and teeny tiny ice chips.

In response to an undergrad, who asked about attending law school if he is not sure he wants to be an attorney:

The reason or reasons any of us choose to attend law school vary widely, I’m sure. What they all have in common is that they are personal. Not to be evasive, but I think that each individual has to come to the decision after hitting all the wickets in the decision making process, which will be unique for each candidate.

For me, it’s about the education. I am not sure where this will lead, but I know this: legal education is rewarding for me, and it was the right call at the right time for me.

Many of the men and women I admire have law degrees, and many of them are not attorneys. One mentor is a former JAG attorney who set up a boutique firm in Colorado, then went on to fly airliners and represent pilots to management, the FAA and – most recently – Congress. Others are developers and visionaries who find themselves working in professional sports (particularly baseball). Not everyone attends law school to be become a practicing attorney.

As a young man growing up with dreams of flight, the airline life was rewarding, but unequivocally linear – there was a clear path. As a former airline pilot and current aerospace professional, the future is less finite, but still rather linear. With a legal education, the future appears more alluvial. I like that.

Most programs are expensive; all are rigorous. There are direct costs for all students attending law school, and indirect and opportunity costs unique to each student. You should carefully consider each of these before you commit.

But I think the question to consider is not necessarily “Do I want to be a lawyer?” Rather, “Do I want a formal legal education?” The answer to the latter was a resounding YES for me.

I recognize that this is contrary to many opinions expressed in blogs and credible periodicals, and by a fellow CWSL blogger (who is reasonable and thoughtful). If the education is merely the means to the end of being a practicing attorney, then I agree with my colleague: don’t go to law school unless you want to be a practicing attorney.

For me, the education is an end. It is an integral part of a personal awakening that I recognized first from the vantage point of my father’s shoulders. I want the education. Of course, I measured the costs: direct (tuition, books, parking, coffee), indirect (impact on my marriage, my relationship with my kids, my friends), and opportunity (business school looks less likely).

Having measured these questions carefully before attending, and reviewing the costs at the end of my first year, I am comfortable with my decision to attend.

The value of the education is proving far greater than its cost.

-Dave

My study partner got mad and permanently defaced my casebook. Tempers get a little short around finals.

We had disagreed on a point of law, and carried the debate into class several days later. When she was vindicated by the professor, I was obliged to admit to the professor and the class that my partner was right, and that *gulp* I was wrong.

It was humbling.

This can’t be good for my eyes.

20/15 when I left the airline cockpit. Now, I can’t drive in the rain at night without my glasses. I pulled off the road on the way to dinner last week because I left my glasses at home. Claudia took over. With the glare from the wet roads, the cars ahead didn’t look like individual cars, but molten lava.

I blame law school.

Remember to factor the costs of a new prescription and lenses if you start law school after 40.

About a week until finals. Civil procedure is good, clean fun: chess with more pieces. But, sometimes, the best way to go after it is from under a REALLY BIG conference table.

Still a couple weeks from finals.  Trying to get my arms around Civil Procedure.  Sometimes, the best way to go after this stuff is on a REALLY BIG conference table.